The Congress, in an embarrassing slip in Madhya Pradesh, elected a youth wing general secretary who has long left the party and is now in the BJP. The leader’s “election” has now been cancelled but the blunder is being held up by Congress critics as symptomatic of the party’s disconnect with ground realities.
On Friday, Harshit Singhai, a BJP leader, was stunned when he started receiving congratulatory messages over his new “post” in Jabalpur. He had quit the Congress back in March, when scores of party MLAs and workers followed Jyotiraditya Scindia to the BJP.
Yet, the update had not reflected in the Congress’s records in nine months.
The Youth Congress’s organisational elections ended on Friday and Harshit Singhai was “elected” by 12 votes.
“The most laughable is the fact that no one was interested in the polls and I was elected general secretary. I left the Congress on March 10 with Scindia-ji. I filled in my nomination for the Youth Congress polls three years ago,” Harshit Singhai, incredulous, told reporters.
He explained that after nominations were submitted, the polls kept getting delayed. They were first stalled because of the Madhya Pradesh election in 2018 and later because of the national election.
“When I joined the BJP with Scindia-ji, I requested the party that my name be dropped from the Youth Congress polls but nothing was done. When I called again, they asked me to send a mail explaining the circumstances in which I left the party. I had written to Kamal Nath (former Chief Minister) and Rahul Gandhi. This is what the Youth Congress has done across Madhya Pradesh. Those who are not in the party anymore are being elected.”
Former state Youth Congress chief Kunal Chaudhary accused Mr Singhai of resorting to “cheap tactics” to malign his former party and lying about withdrawing his nomination. He said as soon as the error was flagged, the appointment was cancelled.
Mocked by the BJP as well as critics on social media, the Congress has set up a “disciplinary committee” to investigate who was responsible for the blooper and take action.
